Modular Locomotive sheds [MLSS 0.5.2]

[Eddi]

the second company colour needs a special flag to get enabled, otherwise green stays green.

[supermop]

Can anyone give me a hint what I need to set to enable 2CC? I am thinking I will likely release the next version of this later tonight, but would really like to get the 2nd CC parts working before that.

Thanks,

[supermop]

Larger Roundhouse.png (86.63 KiB) Viewed 6506 times

So, these new roundhouse tiles are not quite ready for release on bananas, but they are getting pretty close. That's where you (the community) come in. I'd like to get some input about the finishing touches to be put on these structures! I realize that the East-Southeast section is misalligning in that picture, overcorrected for some white pixels.

Firstly, fenestration: the windows are really just place holders right now. I have intended from the start to place large, warehouse style windows on the back walls of the sections, but I am at a loss for what they should look like and how to draw them. Likewise, the windows over the doors and on the roof should have some glass in them, but I am solliciting opinions on how best to draw it.

Next, pavement: What do people think about the grey pavement for the groundsprites as opposed to the cobblestone/brick pavers? I will probably add a grey pavement to the modern style shed, but this roundhouse is intended to be intermediate in style between the metal and masonry sheds.

How do people like the concrete structural elements? It's more realistic for an industrial building of this size and era than a masonry bearing wall, but I am willing to hear your thoughts about it.

I still cant figure out how to get the green parts to be 2CC, so any tips there would be appreciated.

Anyway, please try out the grf, and let me know what you think would help it for the next release.

[Pingaware]

Windows - As far as I remember, many sprite drawers have said they use a purple colour for glass. Would that do for you? I don't think that you need windows on the back of the sheds though.

Concrete - Looks really good! Please don't get rid of it, as I feel it would take some of the charm of the buildings away.

Pavement - I prefer the brick pavement, I have to say.

[andythenorth]

No obligation, but this sheet contains concrete / mud / cobble tiles at the bottom. I spent a while getting the feel of default TTD textures for the mud and concrete. Cobble is my own invention Feel free to use these - ideally you'd GPL your set though

default_blocks.png (9.82 KiB) Viewed 6454 times

Windows: use the purples in the palette #D4D4E0 through #242844.

One thing you might not want to hear: the lighting is currently wrong Light from NE means that doors on the N/NW part of the roundhouse should be in heavy shade. EDIT, actually I'm not sure about that. The lighting can be tricky, especially with a non-square building. The original graphics play fast and loose with lighting in some places anyway

The concrete in the building looks nice. You can get a very good effect with it. Similar style is used in FIRS for a meat packer.

meat_packer_5.png (16.35 KiB) Viewed 6454 times

[supermop]

Ok, setting the action 00 flag for 2 CC causes a "faal error", so I am assuming that 2 CC is impossible for stations at the moment. I think for now I will leave my brick pavement for these tiles, and not place any windows on the rear wall unless there is a strong demand. I am unsure of the direction I will go in for glazing, but there is still some detail work that need doing, such as dirtying up the corners near the ground.

Andy: I have been drawing my shed sprites for this set assuming light coming from due east, at about 30 degrees elevation. Im not sure if thats precisely correct, but it is consistent throughtout the set, and hasn't seemed too jaring next to other buildings so far. Getting a hexadecagonal building into a fake-isometric world, let alone shading it seems to be an imprecise science by nature. The brightest faces tend to be too bright in my opinion, simply because there isnt enough room in the pallette for subtle variation. Thanks for your offer of textures, but I think I will use my pavements for now. If people complain loudly about them clashing with other sets I may have to reconsider. I didn't bother mentioning a license for the download in my last post as I figured only a few people would be looking at it, but MLSS is released under GPL 2 on bananas and for "proper" releases on this forum. Let it be inferred that any test versions, etc, I upload here for the sake of development and advice are also under GPL 2.

I still need to learn to animate some of the sprites, hopefully I will have time to learn that soon!

Best,

[supermop]

MLSS026.png (131.81 KiB) Viewed 6288 times

So, I had written a very long post introducing the new version of MLSS, and of course I lost my internet conection as I clicked submit...

Anyway, tonight I release MLSS 0.2.6. New features include: finished large roundhouse (only in 1CC unfourtunately), custom groundsprites for all shed tiles, a gravel yard tile, new overlay tiles that cover their neighbor in the same row, non-track (buffer) shed tiles, and a coulple more variants of the basic masonry shed.

Things still to do include door and turntable animation, perimeter fences, decorative facility tiles, and railtype - depot integration.

Please give the set a try and let me know what you think,

best,

[supermop]

Sorry that it's bee solong since any ne content was added for MLSS. I recently started a new job ( for a british company at that) I have had less time to devote to coding for the set, which is what takes up most of my time due to my lack of aptitude. I am happy to continue drawing for this set, and perhaps some otherss as well, but it would be a huge help if anyone with coding knowledge wanted to lend a hand with the set. I would love for mlss to become a team project, but i understand if no one shares my enthusiam for the set in particular.

Anyway, I will try to get some new drawings posted soon.

best,

[Nickel_Plate]

I see you still have the same problem in this version as in the last, see picture circled in red .

Are the doors suppose to open because the train just drives through.

[supermop]

The doors are not yet animated, so they should be open all the time. In your picture it seems like there is a problem cusing the cobblestone pavement with maglev track. Does the maglev do this on the plain paved track tile as well? I am not sue whats going on in the red circle as those appear to be non-overlay tiles. It seems to be some kind of clipping or draw order issue. Does it happen just with maglev, or with other railtypes as well? Are other people having this problem? Does anyone have a good idea for fixing it?

I will try to see if i can figure out a solution. It would be bbest if i could draw a different groundsprite for each rail type, but i am not sure how to have the tile figure out which to use.

Thanks for letting me know about this!

[Nickel_Plate]

Having the same effect on ALL train types in this orientation.

The door effect is due to rail type not being shown displayed inside depot.

[Chris]

The doors are not yet animated, so they should be open all the time. In your picture it seems like there is a problem cusing the cobblestone pavement with maglev track. Does the maglev do this on the plain paved track tile as well? I am not sue whats going on in the red circle as those appear to be non-overlay tiles. It seems to be some kind of clipping or draw order issue. Does it happen just with maglev, or with other railtypes as well? Are other people having this problem? Does anyone have a good idea for fixing it?

I will try to see if i can figure out a solution. It would be bbest if i could draw a different groundsprite for each rail type, but i am not sure how to have the tile figure out which to use.

Thanks for letting me know about this!

This happens to me as well, using NuTracks and UKRS2 (and obviously modular sheds ).

[zero.eight]

Clipping looks like a bounding box issue. Control-b brings up bounding box ingame, and it looks like the foreground sprite's bounding box for the depots is not big enough. It's probably the x-size that needs to be increased.

Forgot to say that I really like this set

[supermop]

Ok, first I would like to apologize for disappearing a couple of months ago, and leaving you guys with what is essentially a broken eyecandy grf. I spent most of the summer being unemployed, so I had plenty of time to struggle with nfo etc. In August I started a new job, so I have simply not had the energy to work on this. While there are still more impoortant things for me to be working on, I was very impressed with the sudden appearance of the departureboards patch, which has coaxed me back to OTTD, and encouraged me to produce more modelling work for the train and building sets I've been planning since before MLSS. I felt it would be poor form to abandon this in this state, so I am am trying to fix its problems and add the features I think it still needs.

To that end, here is the next version with the clipping problem hopefully fixed. I have yet to touch the bouding boxes for the roundhouse, because they were particularly tricky to fine tune in the first place. Please put this grf through its paces and let me know if anyone is still seeing problems! The next things I need to learn are: open shed door (ie change animation frame) on train routing through tile, and tiles that are aware of their neighbors (draw fence sprite on a edge that borders empty or non-station tile, omit on edge bordering station tile). Any tips about these will be appreciated!

Best,

[kamnet]

Welcome back! Glad to hear that you're once again employed as well as motivated to continue your excellent work. It's amazing what having a source of income can do for your creativity

[supermop]

Here is a question about Action 2 for stations. I still dont completely understand this action, but i need to use it... as far as I can tell, there are variable that return information about neighboring station tiles, but I can't see how I can then use this information to decide if a sprite should be drawn or not. Is there some mechanism for specifying "if tile to north-west is part of this station, do not draw sprite x"?

Thanks,

[supermop]

Hello all,

So in addition to trying to understand how Var action 2 works - still no idea - I've been doing some drawing as well. Here are some things that might end up in the next relase, if I can figure out how to code them.

wip.png (13.77 KiB) Viewed 5507 times

So, the fences have been something I've had in mind for awhile, but I still cant figure out how to code them (use action 2 to figure out if a tile is on the edge of a station, then place sprite on that edge). The brick and clapboard would be on cobble tiles, the chain-link on gravel.
The shed is pretty straightforward; another set of sheds to match the large roundhouse. These might get windows on the side. I am not sure if these will make it into the set, as I don't want to use up another station category.
The two-tile building is something I've wanted to do for awhile. I decided to use teals for the windows because they felt more natural for old, frosted glass I see on abandoned warehouses etc, and I just couldn't get the purples to look right and give the effect of many small, irregular panes of glass. Tips and thoughts are appreciated! This building is actually a real structure that I see on most of my rail journeys around here (not counting subway), some kind of prize to anyone who can guess what building it is and/or what it is for!

Best,

[kamnet]

boiler room / physical plant?

[supermop]

It's definitely along those lines. I guess there might not be too many NEC riders browsing this section, so maybe this is going to be too much of a stretch.

Is anyone using/having problems with 0.2.7? I want to make sure all the basics are working before I start adding new features.

Best,

[kamnet]

I found this slight inconsistency when using the Modular Roundhouse Tiles east/west entrance (on left) and the masonry Basic Modular Shed Tiel north/south entrance (on right).

modular-2.7.png (8.26 KiB) Viewed 5381 times

I also noticed this issue with a train running past one of the sprites. I'm not sure if that's related to the previously noted clipping issue.

modular-2.7a.png (14.66 KiB) Viewed 5365 times

Third question - is there a masonry depot replacement for this yet?